Fortescue Metals Profit down 40%

Mining company, Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG) has announced its first half results to the sharemarket.

• Fortescue Metals Group Net Profit US$478 million, down 40 percent from US$801 million in the previous corresponding period.
• Revenue was $US3.301 billion, down 2 percent from $US3.357 billion.
• Fortescue will not pay out a dividend. In the previous period it had paid a fully franked 0.04 cent dividend per share. The company may consider a dividend payout in the full year if iron ore prices improve.
• Fortescue Chief executive Nev Power said, "It has recovered more strongly than we anticipated, and I think there are a number of underlying factors in that there is a very increased confidence in the new leadership in China to continue the urbanisation and infrastructure building and that's translating to a lot of confidence and has restarted a lot of construction activity in China"
• Revenue down 2 percent at US$ 3.3 billion